A Chef, Always
by DayLightDove
Summary: (AU) One-shot. Based off of Protect You, Always. At five years old Rin wanted to cook. Shiro decides to let the boy make dinner, but Yukio is worried about his brother's safety in the kitchen. Turns out, Rin had a natural gift in cooking.


**OK so this is a little one-shot I thought of.**

 **It is off of my story _Protect You, Always_ and it takes place a few years earlier when Rin learns how to cook. I wanted to write something fluffy and cute and I've thought of this for a while now. Also I was challenged to write something fluffy, and I did so ha!**

 **Anywho I do not own BE/ANE.**

 **Onto the one-shot!**

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Shiro sighed as he looked through the cabinets in the kitchen. He had to start making dinner for everyone living in the monastery. It wasn't always his job, but it didn't help that out of the adults in the building, he was the closest the being at least 'ok' at cooking. Still, most of the time they all lived off of instant foods and take out, the few times one of the adults had to cook-which again was usually Shiro-the food only came out as passable in the edible state of things.

It seemed tonight would be one of those nights since of all the food he could find, none of it fell into the category of instant, microwavable food. He would go out to get take out, but they wanted to save that money for later in the week. They were supposed to have some instant meals for tonight, but they must have miscounted or something along those lines.

"Dad?"

Shiro blinked at the soft voice calling out to him, and he turned around to find his five-year-old son standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Yes? What is it Rin?" He asked as he took in the boy's body language. Rin was shifting where he stood and biting his lip. "Rin?"

"Can...Can I make dinner?" Rin asked hesitantly.

"Do you mean you want to help me?" Shiro replied with a tilt of his head.

Rin bit his lip a bit more and puffed his cheeks out as he shook his head. "No, I want to make dinner."

Shiro sighed. "I don't know if I feel safe leaving you alone in the kitchen."

"I'll be careful!" Rin protested. "I just want to make dinner!"

"I don't know…"

"Please~!?" Rin cried, staring up at his father figure with large blue eyes. "I promise I'll be careful!"

Shiro felt his strength crumbling at the sight of those large blue eyes and had to close his eyes for a few seconds before opening them up again and kneeling in front of his son.

"Ok," He began. "How about this? I'll set up the things you need and then I'll keep an eye on you from one of the chairs at the table?"

Rin shuffled. "Can you be outside of the kitchen?

"Rin-"

"I'll be safe!" Rin quickly shouted before Shiro could get another word in. "I-I just want to do it by myself."

Shiro could see how badly Rin wanted to do this, yet he was still afraid for his boy. Rin was still young and could hurt himself very easily, but at the same time Shiro didn't doubt that if Rin was as serious as he appeared to be about this, then everything would be fine.

"Alright, after I help you set up and explain a few things to you, I'll watch you from outside the kitchen, ok? But if I hear or even see anything go wrong, I'm taking over, got it?"

"Yes!" The smile on Rin's face made Shiro feel like Rin didn't even listen to the last part of his rules. Shiro stood up as he watched Rin dash around the kitchen, climbing onto the stool Shiro had gotten whenever the boys had to use the sink.

Rin reached forward for the cookbook sitting on the counter. It was one of the things left from the boy's mother, and even when the adults of the household tried to cook from the book, their meals still only came out as edible. He watched Rin page through the book, which thankfully held pictures for the words Rin's young mind couldn't figure out, before finally settling on a page and turning to Shiro expectantly.

Chuckling at the boy's eager expression, Shiro moved to look over the ingredients and look through the cabinets and fridge once again. Luckly, Rin had chosen a rather simple dish with ingredients that they had in the house. Once everything was set up and explained to the boy, Shiro was shooed out of the kitchen.

Shiro sat in the dining room, just outside the kitchen, listening as his youngest got to work. He was a little nervous when he heard vegetables starting to be cut, the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board made him worry about Rin's safety. When he heard the sound of the burners turning on, he felt a little sweat trickle down his neck from nervousness, but he took a deep breath and let himself trust that Rin was going to be ok.

"I'm home!"

Shiro blinked before standing up to greet his other son at the door, Yukio having just gotten home from school. His twelve-year-old son was frozen in the doorway, his face holding confusion as he no doubt smelled the delicious smell coming from the kitchen.

"Welcome home, Yukio!" Shiro greeted, breaking his son out of his thoughts.

Yukio blinked up at Shiro before asking. "Did we get take out tonight?"

"Er...no we didn't. That's for tomorrow."

"Did you hire someone?"

"No."

"Then who-?" Yukio suddenly realized something and his eyes flashed around to observe the area around him before he spoke. "Wait, where's Rin? He usually rushes to see me."

Shiro chuckled nervously. It wouldn't be long until Yukio put the dots together and, while he was technically their father figure, he did not want to face Yukio when he was in protective brother mode.

"Now, Yukio-"

"No, I want to know where Rin is now, Shiro." Yukio growled. However, Shiro saw the exact moment the dots connected in his bright young mind and Yukio gasped. He started to make his way to the kitchen, but Shiro blocked him.

"Shiro." Yukio growled threateningly.

"Look, I know you're worried, trust me I was too, but he's fine." Shiro tried to convince Yukio.

"You don't know that!" Yukio shouted back, but still hushed enough to avoid having Rin hear it from his place in the kitchen. "What if he hurts himself!?"

"If he does I will put a stop to it immediately."

"And you trust Rin to tell you if he gets hurt? You know he's hidden some of his injuries before!"

"Yes, but I doubt he could hide it the moment it happens." Shiro said calmly. "Trust me on this. Besides, you should have seen him, he looked so happy to cook!"

"Did you even try to say 'no'?" Yukio asked, raising an eyebrow at the older exorcist.

"Of course I did!" Shiro defended with a huff. "But you know how Rin is. You try saying no to him when he looked as happy as he did."

"I could've said no to him if it meant keeping him safe." Yukio huffed back. "I mean, honestly did you-"

"Done!" The cheerful voice of Rin came from the kitchen, cutting off Yukio. Shiro listened as Rin scrambled out of the kitchen and called out. "Dad?"

"Over here, Rin!" Shiro called back with a smile on his face. Yukio was still glaring at the older man but it melted off his face when Rin came racing in with a huge smile on his face.

"I did it! I did it!" He cried, and suddenly Rin took notice of Yukio there and his smile, somehow, grew even wider. "Nii-san! You're back! Guess what I did!"

Deciding to humor his brother, Yukio asked with a smile on his face, "What did you do Rin?"

"I got to make dinner!" Rin exclaimed, his bright smile so infectious to those around him.

"Really? That's great Rin!" Yukio replied despite his earlier objections. He didn't want to risk making his brother upset. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shiro giving him a look that clearly said 'I told you so' and Yukio looked away.

"Come on! Come on!" Rin cried pulling Yukio's arm to drag him after him. Yukio stumbled a bit, as his brother still had more strength than he did, but he regained his footing and chuckled. They followed Rin as he pulled them into the dining room and sat down as Rin dragged one of the other ministers to help him bring the food out.

"So," Shiro started, a smirk on his face. "You would've said no?"

Yukio shot him a glare without giving a verbal response. Shiro chuckled at the boy's reaction before turning to look at the entrance of the kitchen as Rin and one of the priests brought in dinner. They each placed a serving on their plates and, after giving thanks, took a bite of the meal.

A few seconds passed as the taste washed over their tongues and Rin was looking at everyone expectantly.

"Whoa!"

"This really isn't take out?!"

"This is amazing!"

Rin beamed at the compliments coming from the other people at the table. This was his first time attempting this and he was glad it turned out so well, especially when he had so much fun cooking the meal. Maybe Shiro and Yukio would let him cook more often because of this.

Meanwhile, Shiro and Yukio were stunned. Rin's cooking was impressive, much better than their own skills. His cooking was already very good, they were curious as to how much he would grow if they continued to let him cook.

Of course, if this was the outcome of each time he cooked, Shiro had no problems with it. "Rin, my boy, you have a gift!" He exclaimed as he continued to dig into his meal.

"Thank you!" Rin replied, his smile basically glowing. "Can I cook more?"

"Well," Shiro hummed, appearing thoughtful to the boy when he had already made up his mind. "I don't see why not. However, we should ask your brother first."

The smirk Shiro had made Yukio know exactly what he was implying with this, because really, Rin didn't need his permission to cook, just Shiro's. Taking a deep breath, Yukio began to brace himself for when he turned to Rin. As much as he would love to have his brother continue cooking for them, Rin was still so young and Yukio was worried about him cooking in the kitchen alone.

"Rin, I-" He broke off when his eyes met his brother's bright ones, and Yukio could feel all the defences he had up crumbling away. "I...I think it would be great if you continued to cook. Especially since you're really good at it."

"Really! Thank you so much, Nii-san!"

Yukio decided to ignore the amused chuckles coming from Shiro and focused instead on finishing his meal. Everyone took a chance to grab for seconds and when all the food was gone, they cleaned up.

As Shiro and Yukio were placing their dishes in the sink, the older exorcist smirked. "So, you could have said 'no'?"

"Shut up."

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 **So that was that! Nice and cute and fluffy. See, I can write one-shots like this.**

 **Feel free to comment or anything else!**

 **Until next time! :D**


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